Homework, 3/23/2017

Yes, I wrote a lot below but that’s because I have not been in school this week attending to a personal family matter. The work is a mix of classwork and homework and so students should already have a head start on much of what is written below. Furthermore, I felt it important to provide context to my students regarding both the History and Writing assignments. This was not to overwhelm them, rather, I did a lot of the legwork for them by providing them context and the research so they can primarily focus on their writing.

If you have any questions just let me know, but I don’t feel that after talking with Miss Pimental, anything below is too much for the long weekend. Some short Math, the 5 paragraphs of persuasive writing in your CC Book, and a simple packet for History. The MLK packet should also be close to completion (if not finished in class). Again, we’ll go over the subjective nature of those questions upon my return next week.

Lastly, please use my post from last night regarding Dividing Decimals. I provided a variety of different links as reference for students who may be struggling on this particular concept. Rest assured, though, that when I return next week we will cover all of this material in depth so that my kids stay on the advanced track that they’ve been on all year long.

Thanks again for your patience and understanding and if there’s anything else I can do for you just let me know. Thanks.

Reading– 45 minutes in your independent non-fiction book, no notes required, this is the honesty system we’re working on this weekend

Please also complete the MLK Packet so we can discuss some of the more controversial/subjective questions that are in it when I return next week.

Math- Redo pg. 67 from your 5B Textbook (Miss Pimental said you did not show your work as instructed and as the PARCC requires, not to mention Mr. S has required all year long), #s 1-13

There is one somewhat confusing question, #9, regarding Japan. I think what they are looking for is that Japan is a nation that is aging quite rapidly which is one of the major reasons why they’ve invested tens of billions of dollars in robotics. People in Japan are also getting older but the other issue is that younger people are focusing more on their careers and not starting families, that is why they are the only nation listed above that has a negative birth rate per year – a major problem for a nation that is trying to modernize and stay a major power in the world!

You can either try answering #9 as best you can OR just skip it, that’s okay with me, but I’d like if you can give it a try based on the hints I gave you above.

Japan is a nation that also relies heavily on the fishing industry and so many people are employed in that profession along with business and the electronics industry. Also, more than any nation above, Japan is suffering from a lack of place for people to live! There is simply no room to build apartments so I encourage you to go on YouTube and take a look at how small some of the homes Japanese residents reside in…it’s quite remarkable how efficiently they live in such a small space! The older people live (in Japan there is great respect for their elders), that means their homes are rarely every resold to a younger family ready to start their own lives.

So an aging population combined with more young people moving to the cities and you can see why there is this growing problem of how people will be living in the (near) future.

Use this example about Japan above and apply it to the other nations on the chart. Think about it in terms of the United States as well- as we’ve discussed all year long, people will always struggle and fight over resources, that’s just a historical fact. The Earth can only support so many people as well.

What can do we do to help? Do you have any solutions to the problem of overcrowding? To refugees being stuck in tent cities for years and even decades? Isn’t it easy for these people to lose all hope at a normal life without our help? I’m just curious what you have to say on Monday aside from your answers in this packet. Think outside of yourself for a moment this weekend and really use the Internet as it was originally intended: a LEARNING tool. 🙂

***below is one of the largest refugee camps in the world

Below are various links to supplemental Geography videos, many of which I’ll be showing in class but are available here for you to browse at your convenience. Some are better than others so I tried to label them.

https://youtu.be/D_dIrFiHn9c (Why do we study geography? This video should be shown first, it’s most informative, and students should have taken notes on it during class)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iha3OS8ShYs (this WONDERFUL link shows how Europe changed over the past 1000 years, how borders moved, countries disappeared, were created, etc….SPECIFICALLY FOCUS ON THE YEARS AFTER 1900 AND UP THROUGH 1990 and the collapse of the Soviet Union)….we study history and Geography EXACTLY FOR THIS REASON, because time is immutable, it does not stop even after we die…countries and borders are just lines on a map but can easily be crossed or ignored…ASK YOURSELF, HOW HAS EUROPE CHANGED IN THE PAST 1000 YEARS? WHAT COUNTRIES DID YOU SEE EARLY ON IN THE 1000s but no longer existed into modern times? What else are you noticing? This is why geography is important, because borders help create identity but sometimes those borders keep people inside that don’t necessarily belong or fit within a culture (i.e. Israel and Palestine, Ukraine and Russia, Chechnya and Russia, etc.)…borders are a good and bad thing…(you don’t have to discuss this, just show the video if you’re comfortable).

Writing– please complete the Lesson 12: Writing an Opinion Piece exercise you’ve been working on over the past couple of days. All pages from 235 through 253 should be completed, including the written 5 paragraph rough draft that is described at the bottom of 253. We started this section in class a few days back so you should not be doing the entire section over the weekend all at once; if you are, that means you have not been using your time wisely :-\ Anyway, just in case, I’ll type up the question below…REMEMBER, THIS IS A ROUGH DRAFT so please don’t go crazy spending hours and hours on this, I’d just like students to have a foundation that we can build from starting when I return next week.

The Writing Assignment at the bottom of page 253 goes on below…

“Some people feel that printed books will one day be a thing of the past. They believe that in the future, all books will be electronic, read on computer screens, and electronic devices. Are printed books in danger of disappearing? Will they someday belong only in museums? Would that be a good thing or not?

Write FIVE paragraphs stating your opinion about whether or not printed books should be replaced with electronic books. Indlude research about the cost, benefits, and effectiveness of both. Be persuasive!”
This is why pre-planning and doing your own research is imperative when trying to persuasde someone. Just the other day I read that millenials (people my age and younger!) are more interested in purchasing hardcover books than digital copies! How interesting is that?

Now it’s YOUR TURN to research. What are some positives of schools that are going digital only? There is plenty of research out there regarding schools that have done away with traditional textbooks in favor of using tablets in the classroom. What are some of the pros/cons of that? What do you think?

I’m going to leave this part of the research up to you. I’ll provide links below but it’s up to you to pull data and information, quotes and statistics that you can use in your 5 paragraph persuasive essay. This is NOT an opinion piece, you MUST SUPPORT YOUR PERSPECTIVE using evidence from the sources provided to you here.

You of course don’t have to read all of these articles, rather, just browse them and pull out facts and data that you can incorporate in your own essay.

OPTIONAL HISTORY ASSIGNMENT (I’m not sure if the sub gave it out to you this week)

(THIS KENYA WORKSHEET IS OPTIONAL, IT WILL BE CLASSWORK ON MONDAY, BUT YOU CAN GET A HEAD START ON IT NOW IF YOU’D LIKE)

I was not in school yesterday but it was brought to my attention that students were given a geography worksheet covering certain animal species that may exist in or around the country of Kenya. Attached below is a copy of that worksheet just in case.

DOWNLOAD: Wildlife Grid Kenya Geography (this is also related to Math in the sense of X and Y axis (the first number students should look at is the X and the second the Y, for example the question regarding the beaver, it’s grid reference, and whether or not it’s found in Kenya…

The first thing you do is to look for the symbol for the beaver somewhere on the other side of the worksheet. If you look, the beaver is found in Ethiopia, NOT Kenya so the answer would be no. As for the grid reference, the answer should be written as (63-64, 22-23). I know it’s not ideal to have 2 numbers for an X-Y axis, but that’s how the worksheet is set up (the animals fall between two numbers, that’s the only reason why).